Spiffy:

Iffy:

Limited sensitivity settings; some technical issues.

With Turning Point: Fall of Liberty nearing release, we got to hang onto an early build for a few days and dig in a bit more than we have previously. Developer Spark Unlimited clearly has a great feel for the first-person shooter genre, from the pacing of encounters to the foot speed of everyman protaganist Dan Carson. We were particularly pleased to finally move past the game's introductory story arc in New York. From New York, we moved onto the American Rebellion's attempt to take back DC and then, abroad.

To briefly cover Turning Point's setup, Fall of Liberty is set in an alternate version of 1953. In this timeline, Winston Churchill dies in an accident (in the real world, it just left him walking with a cane for life). With Churchill dead in 1931, England doesn't provide a focal point for the Allies to resist the Axis forces. The Axis, and in particular the Nazis, overrun Europe only to begin their assault of the isolationist United States in 1953. Your character, high-rise construction worker Dan Carson, finds himself in the thick of things immediately.

Carson is working at the tip-top of an under-construction skyscraper's framework when Nazi attack planes and zeppelins begin to tear across the sky from the east. The first stage is still our favorite due to the sheer chutzpah of the developers. Attacking planes crashing into New York skyscrapers and sending them tumbling resonates powerfully. Fighting desperately to hold thrown-together barricades with other civilian fighters and the National Guard is entertaining, but by making the backdrop of these fights the ruined buildings of New York, Turning Point ups the emotional ante.

So the introductory story arc, revolving around New York, is still our favorite for sheer intensity. But once you're through New York, with the underground well and truly formed, it's time to move onto Washington DC. President Dewey resigns, leaving a sympathizer to take the White House and immediately surrender to the Nazis. That leads to yet another plot twist that we're surprised Turning Point was brave enough to include. Without spoiling it too much, we will say that we were surprised to see Nazi flags hanging there.

After our adventures in DC, we took a hop across the pond to take the fight to the enemy. In the final arc of the game, Carson and the rebels travel to England to beard the Nazi lion in its den. While Turning Point doesn't take you around the entire world, it does give you three locations that are effective and haunting "what could have beens." Honestly, we prefer three well-done arcs to an even dozen okay ones.

Some technical flaws still haunt the build we were given. In particular, Carson is tough to get exactly in place to trigger contextual actions like climbing ladders, and the framerate can chug. Hopefully we'll see those ground out by the final version of the game. What we would really like to see in the final build are more choices for view sensitivity. Currently your choices are limited to low, medium, and high, which we found to be way too slow, too slow, and maddeningly twitchy.

Throughout our playtime with Turning Point, we got the impression that this is a very competent shooter with a few jaw-dropping set pieces to liven it up. Spark Unlimited has fully committed to its alternate Earth, with missions and settings that impressed us with their vision and implementation. We'll see how well the final product turns out when Fall of Liberty ships later this month.